6.  The applicant was born in 1939 in Croatia. She currently lives in Burlington, Canada.
7.  The applicant is the owner of a flat in Karlovac where she lived until October 1991, when she left for Germany to join her son. Later on both of them went to Canada.
8.  On 27 September 1995 the Temporary Takeover and Managing of Certain Property Act (“the Takeover Act”) entered into force. It provided that property belonging to persons who had left Croatia after 17 October 1990 was to be taken into the care of, and controlled, by the State. It also authorised local authorities (takeover commissions) to temporarily accommodate other persons in such property.
9.  After realising that her flat had been occupied by third persons, on 24 September 1996 the applicant brought a civil action against a certain family U. in the Karlovac Municipal Court (Općinski sud u Karlovcu) seeking their eviction.
10.  On 27 September 1996 the Commission for Temporary Takeover and Use of Property of the Municipality of Karlovac (Komisija za privremeno preuzimanje i korištenje imovine Općine Karlovac – “the Takeover Commission”) issued a decision authorising a certain M.V. to use the applicant's flat temporarily.
11.  On 16 November 1996 the Municipal Court invited the applicant to designate the proper respondent. On 31 November 1996 the applicant did so by designating M.V. as the respondent.
12.  On 13 June 1997 the respondent submitted to the Municipal Court the decision of the Takeover Commission.
13.  In June 1998 Parliament adopted the Programme for the Return of Refugees and Displaced Persons (“the Programme for Return”), regulating the principles for their return and repossession of their property.
14.  In August 1998 the Act on Termination of the Takeover Act (“the Termination Act”) entered into force. It incorporated and gave legal force to the provisions of the Programme for Return providing that those persons, whose property had during their absence from Croatia been given for accommodation of others, had to apply for repossession of their property with the competent local authorities – the housing commissions.
15.  At the hearing held on 15 September 1999 the court enquired with the Housing Commission of the Municipality of Karlovac (Stambena Komisija Karlovac – “the Housing Commission”) whether it had set aside the Takeover Commission's decision of 27 September 1996. On 22 February 2000 the Housing Commission replied to the court in the negative.
16.  On 10 March 2000 the Municipal Court declared the applicant's action inadmissible for lack of jurisdiction. The court found that the Termination Act was lex specialis in relation to the Act on Ownership and Other Rights In Rem (“the Property Act”). Accordingly, instead of bringing a civil action the applicant should have applied for repossession of her property to the competent housing commission, as provided by the Termination Act.
17.  As neither party appealed against the decision, it became final on 31 March 2000. On the same day the applicant applied for repossession of her property to the Housing Commission.
18.  On 16 October 2000 the Housing Commission decided to set aside the Takeover Commission's decision by which M.V. had obtained the right to use the applicant's property. It also ordered M.V. to vacate the flat within 15 days. M.V. unsuccessfully appealed against that decision to the Karlovac Municipal Court.
19.  On 4 June 2001 the Housing Commission issued a warrant ordering M.V. to vacate the flat within 15 days following the receipt of the warrant and indicated that otherwise it would bring a civil action against him in the competent municipal court.
20.  M.V. failed to comply with that warrant. However, the Housing Commission brought no action against him.
21.  On 1 October 2002 the Amendments to the Act on Areas of Special State Concern (“the 2002 Amendments”) entered into force. They transferred the jurisdiction in the matter from the housing commissions (which were abolished) to the Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction (Ministarstvo za javne radove, obnovu i graditeljstvo – “the Ministry”).
22.  On 21 February 2003 the Ministry invited the applicant to contact its competent regional office in order to repossess her flat and/or receive compensation for the prolonged inability to use it, in accordance with the 2002 Amendments.
23.  One day later the Ministry issued a decision by which it established that M.V. had a right to housing which was to be satisfied by providing him with construction material, in line with the 2002 Amendments. Pursuant to that decision M.V. was obliged to vacate the flat within 90 days of the final shipment of the construction material. The date on which M.V. received the final shipment is unknown.
24.  On 2 April 2003 the applicant contacted the Ministry and requested compensation. She also reiterated her request for repossession.
25.  On 23 June 2003 the Ministry made an offer for a settlement according to which the State was to pay compensation to the applicant. However, the applicant declined the offer as unsatisfactory. She submitted that the amount of compensation offered had covered only the period from 1 November 2002 onwards. Moreover, the compensation had amounted to only 314 Croatian kunas (HRK) per month while the amount of the rent for the flat of that size (45 m²) should have been assessed at HRK 2,500.
26.  In December 2003 M.V. delivered the flat to the Ministry and the applicant repossessed it on 13 January 2004. She submitted that the flat had been looted and rendered uninhabitable.